The eight-year-old boy who managed to escape during a shack fire which killed his two sisters in Ramaphosa on August 22, is recovering well in hospital.
This was revealed by a social worker at OR Tambo Memorial Hospital where the child, Vuyo Ngidi, is being treated for burn wounds.
According to Bonolo Konupi, HOD of social workers at the hospital, the child is responding well to medication.
“Gauteng Department of Social Development is handling the statutory matters which includes possible placement with relatives in Pietermaritzburg,” Konupi said.
Konupi further shared that the child doesn’t have any family members in Gauteng and the whereabouts of the child’s father is unknown.
The Advertiser also spoke to the child’s uncle, Mzikayfani Ngidi, who echoed the same sentiments that Vuyo was recuperating well after visiting him in hospital on August 30.
“During the preparations to fetch my niece and her two children’s bodies, my brother and I took some time out to to see Vuyo. On August 30 he was already out of ICU which was a relief,” Ngidi said.
Describing how the boy looked, Ngidi said his eyes were swollen, his lower body was wrapped in bandages and his skin was pale white.
“On the first day when we went to see him in ICU he was in a bad state. It broke my heart because he couldn’t even open his eyes. But at least on the second day he was happy to see us and he kept telling us that he will build a big house for us and he further shared that he wanted to be a police officer,” he said.
Ngidi said Vuyo also told him that on the day before the fatal incident day on August 21, he apologised to his mother for returning home late that night because he was playing with his friends.
“He told us that is mother was angry with him and went to sleep. He said when he woke up in the middle of the night, he heard a loud bang and that’s when he witnessed the fire,” Ngidi said.
He told the Advertiser that he and his family will take care of Vuyo as their child because they are the only family he has.
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